On her 35th birthday, Joan Jett Blakk, the drag persona of actor Terence Smith, ran for president in lipstick, heels and eyeshadow, continuing a long tradition of drag as political activism. Blakk had also run for mayors of Chicago and San Francisco. During these “campaigns,” Blakk advocated for policies that many politicians are still talking about today, including universal healthcare, eliminating student debt and civil rights.
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Joan Jett Blakk: The drag queen who ran for president
On her 35th birthday, Joan Jett Blakk, the drag persona of actor Terence Smith, ran for president in lipstick, heels and eyeshadow, continuing a long tradition of drag as political activism. Blakk had also run for mayors of Chicago and San Francisco. During these “campaigns,” Blakk advocated for policies that many politicians are still talking about today, including universal healthcare.
TRANSCRIPT
- Who would I like to see as president?
Why, myself of course.
- Her campaign slogan was Lick Bush in '92.
She gave speeches in heels, lipstick, and eye shadow.
Her name was Joan Jett Blakk, and she was a drag queen who ran for President of the United States.
Just another example of how drag can be political.
Who was she?
Well, I'm about to tell you, so hold onto your pantyhose.
Hi y'all, I'm Peppermint, New York City's delightful diva, and welcome to Masters of Drag, where we're telling you stories of American drag pioneers.
If you really think about it, campaigning and drag are pretty similar, both are performative beauty pageants, the competitors just run on different types of platforms, honey.
Ms. Joan Jett knew this so on her 35th birthday, the very day she became eligible to run for president, Miss Jett Blakk announced her candidacy at her birthday bash slash press conference.
Hello.
Now let's backtrack for a few steps and learn a little bit more about the man behind Jett Blakk, Terence Smith.
Terence Alan Smith was a Chicago-born gay actor and activist who first started his drag career under the pseudonym Terry Stewart in 1974.
An icon in the city's queer scene, Smith helped found the Chicago chapter of Queer Nation, an organization that advances LGBTQIA+ issues in the public and political sphere, but it took over 15 years for Joan Jett Blakk to reveal herself.
Her first solo drag gig took place at a Chicago nightclub.
Smith described his drag persona as a combination of early David Bowie, the legendary Divine and the iconic Grace Jones.
A star was born.
Soon, Jett Blakk began appearing at a series of other queer events, including performances to benefit the Act Up coalition to raise awareness for HIV and AIDS.
In 1991, Jett Blakk's political career kicked up several notches after Queer Nation asked her to run for Mayor of Chicago against incumbent Richard Daley.
Now she didn't win but I feel like it's important to add a little context here, especially for those critics who say that these types of campaigns are purely satirical or comedic.
Drag performers and trans activists have a long history of leading the charge for positive change for queer communities and beyond.
For example, they played a crucial role in the Stonewall Uprising, which turned LGBT activism into a mass movement.
And we're still fighting the good fight against local and national policies that attempt to legislate against our freedoms today.
As I've explained in a different episode of Masters of Drag, there are other drag performers, such as José Sarria, who ran for office.
They didn't do so because they believed they could win, they ran for office to push the boundaries, to stand up proudly, to make politicians listen and provide visibility for the queer community.
This is what Joan Jett Blakk was aiming for when she ran for mayor in 1991.
Her mayoral race was documented in the 1991 film 'Drag in for Votes'. Miss Jett Blakk took this energy with her when she stood up a year later and threw her wig in the ring for President of the United States.
- [Joan] That's right, we're gonna put a drag queen in the White House.
In fact, it's not gonna be the White House anymore, it's gonna be the Pink House after we get done.
- Jett Blakk made some very tongue-in-cheek campaign promises, including firing everyone in Washington, calling the fashion police on everybody and painting the White House pink.
She even suggested moving it somewhere more fun, like Palm Springs.
But she also promoted some revolutionary policies such as universal health care, eliminating student debt, gay rights and reproductive rights.
This was years before other more famous democratic candidates would campaign for the very same issues.
And of course, every promise was delivered with Jett Blakk's hilarious off-the-cuff humor.
It was a type of performance art on a huge scale that could not be ignored.
There was a lot of media buzz surrounding the campaign.
Someone named Bill Clinton ended up winning that year, you may have heard of him.
But through her campaign, Jett Blakk managed to influence the political discourse and help raise awareness on issues important to the queer community across the country.
And even though Jett Blakk lost, she did make it all the way to the Democratic National Convention that year.
She wasn't allowed entry in drag, so Smith entered as a man and then changed in the bathroom, emerging wearing an American flag mini dress.
Very patriotic.
After the campaign, Jett Blakk ventured into the world of theater, even hosting her own late night talk show, 'Late Night with Joan Jett Blakk.'
When 1996 came around Jett Blakk launched into her second presidential bid, this time running on her own Black Pantsuit Party ticket.
Now we all know how that election turned out, but nevertheless, like any decent drag queen, she persisted.
Jett Blakk's last campaign would be to run as Mayor of San Francisco in 1999 against Willie Brown, but dropped out before Brown was re-elected.
After that, Terence Smith hung up Jett Blakk's platform heels in the world of politics, but the impact of her campaigns has lived on.
Joan Jett Blakk's campaigns for office we're part guerrilla theater and part actions for visibility railing against the disenfranchisement of the queer community, including the lack of support and resources for the AIDS epidemic.
Some people believe that Pete Buttigieg was the first openly gay presidential candidate in 2020.
But before there was Mayor Pete, there was Joan Jett Blakk.
Drag herstory is longer than most of us think, and we are only just beginning.
(upbeat music)